time

There have been a shocking number of deaths recently, of people too young and too talented to die so soon. From Duke to Yale to Harvard, have tumbled a stream of heartbreaking news about students on the cusp of their futures, only to suddenly evaporate.

The thing is, death resides far far away in the minds of those who are young, and alive. Relegated to the world of the old and the sick, it is a nasty prick to our ignorance when death strikes those who only too closely resemble ourselves. Those who are young, and ambitious, and full of plans for the future. People who seem altogether too full of life to die so easily. We are not so invincible or resilient as we would like to believe. Tragedies like these cause a few moments pause and consideration of just what we are doing with our own precious lives. Those of us who have spent our entire lives to date planning for the future. In middle school for high school, in high school for college, in college for medical school, and so on. How harrowing to think, the fates of those plans already made, stuck, waiting forever to be realized.

It was Sartre who said, “One always dies too soon– or too late. And yet one’s whole life is complete at that moment, with a line drawn neatly under it, ready for the summing up. You are– your life, and nothing else.”

It begs the question, what would constitute the summation of your life if you ceased to exist tomorrow? Would it be all the philosophy books I digested and argued around in circles on typed pieces of 8.5x11 white paper fed through Duke’s eprint within the depths of Perkins and Bostock, or the countless black and white cookies I consumed in the process? The nights I walked back from the library at 2am, basking in the warm safe glow of the light shining down from the clocktower, the main quad so perfectly still, my only problems in the world isolated to the contents of my backpack.Would it be the countless iterations of resumes and cover letters that concisely assert, I am worthwhile! The powerpoint slides I have formatted and reformatted. The trips I have taken to India, and Greece, and Mexico, the friends I have made and lost. The love and appreciation that has matured overtime for my amazing parents and precocious baby sister. The feelings I have felt and the thoughts and opinions I have espoused.

Or is it this moment, on the eve of summer in Boston, after everything has already changed. I find myself an “adult,” but still so very very young. Perhaps, just wise enough to know though nothing in life is guaranteed, it is what we often consider mundane that is truly meaningful upon reflection. Life is all of those things.

In spite of all our best efforts, we may all evaporate without warning. There is nothing we can plan or do, but to be kind, be humble, work hard, and to not take anything, or anyone for granted.